Why Athens, Ala., went with a file shot of Obama
In its Sunday edition, managing editor Kelly Kazek tells readers how the tiny Athens, Ala., News Courier pre-designed a covers for Wednesday’s post-election front, but then ended up keeping the file art it had used as a placeholder.
The News Courier circulates about 6,500 copies in Athens, just west of Huntsville in extreme northern Alabama. It has an eight-person news staff.
Kelly writes:
I used some of the hundreds of photos that had come across the Associated Press wire for our prototypes. We planned to update them later when photos from Election Day were posted but we knew we might not get the “victory shot†because it could be late before concessions and victory.
As it turned out, Obama’s victory speech ended 15 minutes before our deadline and it takes time for AP to post photos and a story. Also, it takes much more than 15 minutes to layout, proof and send pages — via computer — to the press in Cullman for printing.
In addition, a large number of more recent photos, including some from Election Day morning, had black backgrounds. We wanted a photo with color, preferably with a flag in the background to give it a look of patriotism and history.
[In the prototype she had built in case McCain won] We had a photo of John McCain standing under a blue sky and a waving flag.
The photo of Obama in front of a flag was good of him, but the color on the flag was not as vibrant as the one in McCain’s.
Late in the evening, it became apparent that none of the earlier Election Day photos showing Obama in casual dress would be right and we would not have time to get the victory photo. We would need to stay with the flag photo chosen earlier.
When we discovered the next morning most newspapers chose a photo of the entire Obama family wearing dark clothes against a dark backdrop during the historic speech, we were glad of our forced decision.
We felt this front page needed to have a photo of the man, and the man only. We felt it was more dramatic.Â
Her column goes into detail about the alternate versions she built, the decision to kill the paper’s usual left-side rail for Wednesday, the decision to go with a somewhat flip “Big Mac” headline in case McCain won and whether or not they should have even spent time on McCain prototypes in the first place. And what they would have done had a winner not been called by their 11:30 p.m. deadline Tuesday night.
It’s a very nice read. Thanks to Kelly for posting it, and thanks for addressing an issue that’s still being debated in the comments to our day-after section-front post, which you can find here.